Peter Talks Shop with Zipcar CEO Scott Griffith
January 23, 2008
Scott Griffith, CEO of carsharing service Zipcar, will be speaking at UX Week 2008 in San Francisco. I spoke with... Read more »
Peter in Conversation with Don Norman About UX & Innovation
December 13, 2007
We're pleased to announce that user experience pioneer Don Norman will be speaking at Adaptive Path's UX Week 2008 conference.... Read more »
Peter Talks Retail with Joshua Wesson of Best Cellars
September 5, 2007
Joshua Wesson, CEO of innovative wine merchant Best Cellars, will be presenting at MX East, our design management conference, taking... Read more »
Peter Merholz Asks Jess McMullin About The Designer as Facilitator
August 23, 2007
Peter Merholz had the chance to speak with Jess McMullin, Principal at nForm, a user experience design consultancy. Jess presented... Read more »
A Conversation with Michael Bierut
August 7, 2006
Michael Bierut, partner at design firm Pentagram, took part in an email conversation with Peter Merholz. We published these in a series of blog posts, but now that it is complete, we felt it was good to bring it all together in a single piece.
This is not a quick read, but there's a lot of meat in here that already has triggered responses across the blogosphere. Our discussion ranges from design to business to strategy to innovation to politics to practice. Read more »
Get Out of Your Lab, and Into Their Lives
February 1, 2006
The proliferation of usability labs is a sign of success for the field of user-centered design. Whether it's a low-rent... Read more »
Jared Spool on User Research Methods
July 15, 2005
Adaptive Path's Peter Merholz talks with Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering about User Research Methods. Read more »
How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Relinquish Control
June 21, 2005
The Web's lesson is that we have to let go, to exert as little control as necessary. What are the fewest necessary rules that we can provide to shape the experience? Where do people, tools, and content come together? How do we let go in a way that's meaningful and relevant to our business? Read more »
Metadata for the Masses
October 19, 2004
Many classification systems suffer from an inflexible top-down approach, forcing users to view the world in potentially unfamiliar ways. In this essay we explore an exciting new approach to culling metadata from our users. Read more »
Organization in the Way: How Decentralization Hobbles the User Experience
September 5, 2004
Having trouble getting good designs out in the world? It's not because of your skill as a designer -- it's probably because of how your organization is structured. Read more »
Finding the Right Users
April 2, 2003
If you’re using the eenie meenie method to select users for your research, perhaps it’s time you tried something a little more scientific. There is no such thing as sound user research without an airtight user-selection process behind it. Read more »
Conducting International Usability
March 12, 2003
User testing is a valuable tool for helping companies grapple with global concerns, but how does one conduct user tests internationally? This essay draws from my experience leading an international user testing project, and I hope you can learn from my mistakes and successes. Read more »
Communicate the ROI for Design
August 6, 2002
In the late 1990s, companies spent exorbitant amounts of money developing web sites. A happy ancillary effect was the maturation of “user experience design” as a practice -- an opportunity to gain experience and rapidly develop effective methods. Since the dot.bust and collapse of NASDAQ, companies have adopted a thriftier approach, requiring measured accountability for every expenditure, including design. Read more »
The Pendulum Returns, Part 2
May 7, 2002
Last week I argued for the importance of decentralized organizations to unify their online presences. Now, achieving that is much easier said than done. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a handful of companies that have very successful web experiences despite strongly decentralized organizations. We set out to discover what makes these companies’ sites more effective, and found some consistent characteristics. Read more »
The Pendulum Returns: Unifying the Online Presence of Decentralized Organizations
April 30, 2002
A number of smart businesses are realizing that the organizational characteristics that lead to their successes-such as agility, decentralized decision making, and fast growth-have made their Web sites unworkable through poor development processes and inconsistent user experiences. This frustrates any attempt by visitors to find meaningful information. Read more »